Story 3 — I Rediscovered Oz Through My Children

Sometimes a story returns to your life when you least expect it. I had first encountered the world of Oz as a young boy growing up in the Soviet Union. At that time, I knew the adventure through Alexander Volkov's The Wizard of the Emerald City. Years later, after moving to the United States and becoming a father, I rediscovered Oz through my children.

What had once been a childhood memory became something entirely different. I was no longer simply a child listening to an adventure. I was a parent discovering how a story could connect generations.

Seeing Oz Through My Children's Eyes

Childhood stories have a remarkable ability to cross generations. A parent may remember a book from decades earlier, but sharing its world with a child brings a fresh perspective. The characters become familiar again, and questions that never occurred to us as children suddenly become interesting.

For me, revisiting Oz in America also brought a surprise. The story I remembered from the Soviet Union was connected to a much larger American literary tradition.

That discovery encouraged me to look more closely at the original books and the history behind them.

My children helped bring me back to a story I had never completely forgotten.

Discovering L. Frank Baum's Oz Books

The original American story, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, was written by L. Frank Baum and published in 1900. It introduced readers to Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, the Cowardly Lion, and the extraordinary Land of Oz.

Baum continued writing about Oz, eventually producing fourteen Oz books. Other authors later contributed to the series, creating a publishing history that extends far beyond the first adventure.

I began to realize that the childhood story I remembered was only one doorway into this much larger world.

From Reading Oz to Researching Oz

Once I started exploring the American Oz books, my curiosity grew beyond the stories themselves. I wanted to understand the books as historical objects: who published them, how their illustrations changed, and why certain editions were different from others.

For a collector, those details matter. Two copies of a book may have the same title and appear similar at first glance, yet belong to different printings or editions. Identifying those differences requires careful attention to publishing information, binding details, illustrations, and other physical evidence.

This interest eventually led me into rare Oz book collecting and research. What began as a personal rediscovery developed into a deeper commitment to understanding and preserving Oz history.

How a Family Connection Became a Larger Mission

Looking back, I see an important connection between my childhood and my later life as a father. The teacher who read the Emerald City story to my class introduced me to a world of imagination. Years later, my children helped me rediscover that world from a different perspective.

The books and memorabilia I would eventually collect became the foundation for something larger: the Wizard of Oz Museum.

Today, the museum in Cocoa Beach, Florida, invites visitors to explore Oz through its literary history, collectible objects, movie memorabilia, and immersive experiences. For me, that journey has always been personal.